New SBAM member, Regina Malan, will be starring in The Full Monty, a musical based on the movie of the same name. You can catch her on the boards at the Roxy Review Bar from tonight until 25 November. Book tickets here.
Q1: Tell us a little about The Full Monty and why we should come and see it? Who do you play?
The story follows the narrative of the movie very well, however what the movie lacks and The Full Monty musical brings to the party is the thrill of live theatre and characters that are much more fleshed out. I play Vicki, the fabulous Prada-loving wife of Harold. She may be a little crazy at times, but she really loves her husband and would do anything for him. She has this big showbiz number and even dances. She is so full of energy and passion. If you love stories about the underdogs battling against all odds, buckets of laughs thrown in and show-stopping scenes, then this is the show for you. It has heart, so much humour and just a very human story attached to it. I always tell people that what makes this show so special is that you don’t just identify with one character, but with many of them.
Q2: I see you’ve done some opera work as well as musical theatre. Which do you prefer and why?
Funny enough The Full Monty will be my first full musical. The plan was to study a BMus, develop a good singing technique and then pursue a career in musical theatre. I didn’t know anything about opera before I started studying, but after a while I truly started enjoying the music and gained a great respect for it. But, even though operas and musicals are so different and yet similar in more ways than people realise, I have to choose musicals. It is not because I don’t love operas but rather that with my voice type I can do more and feature more in musicals than I ever will in operas. I’m what you call a Mozart mezzo or a lyrical mezzo, so I can sing very low and very high, but the quality is always a bit darker than a full on soprano. Most leads in operas are sopranos or dramatic sopranos, where in musicals the mezzos are the stars.
Q3: What do you think the main difference between professional and amdram theatre is? Why do you give amdram a shot?
To be honest, the only difference I’ve found between professional and amdram theatre is financial payment. Truly. That’s all. You do get bad productions where the actors aren’t really right for the role, or the set could be better, but that can be said about all production, professional or amdram. I only started doing amdram this year and I have to tell you in every production I’ve done I would always forget it was a community theatre. I don’t like calling it amdram, because it doesn’t feel like amateurs working on and off stage, so I usually call it unpaid theatre. You are doing it for no other reason than for the love of theatre; you get to be in shows that may not ever be performed here due to the rights being too expensive for professional theatre and you keep on learning, may it be from others, the industry or learning about yourself.
Q4: And finally, the thing that’s on everyone’s minds…The Full Monty…How full is the monty? How much does the price of our ticket let us see?
Oh you know I can’t give away too much, if you know what I mean. But what I can say is that these men have been so brave and wonderful to work with. They are all so professional and fun to be around and our incredible director Laura Bosman along with brilliant musical director Barend van der Westhuizen, have always made sure that no one is or was uncomfortable in any sense throughout rehearsals. People will just have to come watch and find out for themselves. We may even surprise you.
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